New Engines?

[Joepomp]

Is it just me, or is there no one company that gets it all right?

I bought five new engines. 2 SD70 Athern Geniss, 1 GE U30C Atlas Master Series, 1 F40 Bachmann Spectrum, 1 Old Athern SD40.

The Atlas Looks great the grabirons, light numbers ( front only )the wind shild wipers, all the small detials look great! The couplers are a type that split open, they are no Kadees, though few are. The pulling power is good, but the top speed seems slow. I am using an Atlas decoder which was not included and buzzs at low speed. Enginers in cab.

The Bachmann has good details, great strobe lights (bright and white), Bad front and rear lights to white!) I have no clue what decoder to put in it to keep the lights working. The power and top speed are lacking. Includs Engineers in cab.

The Athern Geniss are powrerfull and run like a Swiss watchs. There was some assembly required They have good detail, but I had to put it all on The Ditch lights still are not working! No Enginers in cab.

The old Athern had good detail and it also runs like a Swiss watch
No Enginers in cab.

Why can't someone make engines that have all the lights (nice LED of aproprate color) all the detials, no assembly, optional decoders and can pull a house at an approprate speed? Am I asking for to much? I don't want to have to take apart a brand new unit!!!

Before you accuse me of being a primemodona, I look at loco power like I look at testequipment. I need to trust in modern manufacturing and quality tecniques, not to mention warnties.
I would gladly pay 2 or 3 dollars more

 

[brakie]

I think one of the reasons you don't see manufacturers installing ditch lights is because not everybody models the years that ditch lights was mandatory..Also not every modeler wants working ditch lights on their locomotives.

Also many modelers including myself doesn't want a engineer in each locomotive.You see if you mu your units you will need but one engineer instead of one in every cab.

You see the manufacturers has to produce locomotives that will be pleasing to all and not the contemporary modeler only.Therefore they must choose a medium where all modelers will be happy and buy their products.

I fully believe and contend that the manufactures choose the right path by not adding working ditch lights and crew figures in the cabs of their locomotives due to the different modern eras one can model that to me would be pre ditch light era and post ditch light era.You see if a modeler models say the CSX,NS or CR of the 80s and early 90s he would not need ditch lights.

 

[Fred_M]

The hobby shop where you purchased them can add the items you request and even assemble them for a small fee. I agree with brakie, I don't want ditch lights or engineers in my new locos, and I don't want decoders installed either. As to LED lights, the white ones are a rather recent invention and some people resist them because they are blue, or run at 3 volts, or are new fangled. And in closing model railroading has historically been a modeling hobby where the hobbiest builds and details his own stuff. In the early years you purchased a box of parts and assembled your own locomotive. It required filing, threading, cutting, bending, soldering, blah blah and tooks months to years of free time to build one. Then athearns and others introduced their almost done kits (blue box) and the old hobbiest compalined they were too easy and wasn't what modelling was about. Now you are saying RTR units are not all the way done and I'm like now the old modeller who now says they are too easy. and so what. "Back in my day we had to put on the hand rails and buy interiors and windows." Oh how the hobby has changed. FRED